(Oh God Fox news... funny anyway)
A Florida Corvette owner said he was almost carjacked at gunpoint, but the would-be thieves ran away because they couldn't figure out how to drive his car.

Randolph Bean was sitting in his bright yellow Corvette when two men took him by surprise, MyFoxOrlando.com reports. It was parked outside Orlando Regional Medical Center in downtown Orlando.

Bean said the two came from behind, and he "barely caught them in the mirror."

According to the police report, one of the men had a gun.

"He started yanking on the door and made me open the door. He kind of flung it open and dragged me out and demanded that I get on the ground... face down, so I couldn't look at him, of course," Bean told MyFoxOrlando.com.

Bean, 51, said one of the thieves pointed a gun at him while asking how to use the car.

"They apparently couldn't start it," Bean said. "I had to tell him four different times to push in the clutch, because it's a standard transmission."

The suspects reportedly gave up and ran away, leaving Bean on the ground. Police tried searching for the suspects, but they took off.

"My first thought was I guess we don't have driver's ed in school anymore because no one knows how to drive a stick," Bean said. "And my second thing was, don't shoot me because you can't start the car. I'm trying to help you out here."

Though the thieves left the Corvette, they still made off with Bean's phone, keys and wallet

Mind you, it works both ways - I once did the classic 'emergency stop by mistake' in an borrowed automatic as I approached a bend and my left foot instinctively groped out for the clutch to change down.

This isn't really new--even twenty or thirty years ago having a stick was something of a theft deterrent. A lot of people I know can't drive them. When I went to drivers' ed 35 years ago I was asked if I was going to be driving "manual" or "standard".

Mind you, it works both ways - I once did the classic 'emergency stop by mistake' in an borrowed automatic as I approached a bend and my left foot instinctively groped out for the clutch to change down.

When I learned to drive, it was on a standard, "three on the tree" - i.e. the stick shift was on the steering column. Now that is a deterrent....

However, once I was in a automatic - a rental thankfully - that had the shifter on the steering column. It also had a steering wheel angle adjustment - also on the steering column. Lets just say I got the two confused, and "parked" the car - at 60kmh. Talk about an 'emergency stop'. Thankfully there was no (visible) damage... perhaps it had a safety over-ride?

I once got great summer job at a camp because I could drive their old van - with the 'three on the tree' shifter. I got to spend the summer driving the new automatic van into the city, and out and about picking up and dropping off people and supplies instead of mowing the lawn and weeding. Drove the old van just once....

__________________My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. - Jack Layton